[comp.unix.aix] Mail notification

ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Eric Behr) (03/20/91)

I'm using csh under AIX 3.1 on a 530. Here is the problem: when I log on,
there is never any notification of waiting mail (new or old). Moreover,
while I'm logged on, the only way to get notified of arrival of new mail is
to have comsat run. It then displays several lines of the incoming message
no matter what I'm doing, so when I'm in vi for example, the whole screen
gets royally messed up. Is there some way to get a more discreet message,
or to make it appear *only* when getting back to the shell from an
application? Thanks in advance.
-- 
Eric Behr, Illinois State University, Mathematics Department
Internet: ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu    Bitnet: ebehr@ilstu

freese@dalvm41b.vnet.ibm.com ("Bradley T. Freese") (05/07/91)

ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Eric Behr) writes:

> I'm using csh under AIX 3.1 on a 530. Here is the problem: when I log on,
> there is never any notification of waiting mail (new or old). Moreover,
> while I'm logged on, the only way to get notified of arrival of new mail is
> to have comsat run. It then displays several lines of the incoming message
> no matter what I'm doing, so when I'm in vi for example, the whole screen
> gets royally messed up. Is there some way to get a more discreet message,
> or to make it appear *only* when getting back to the shell from an
> application? Thanks in advance.

Try this at the csh prompt:

    %set mail = (0 /usr/spool/mail/eric)

This tells csh how often (in seconds, I think) to check your mail and where
to find it.  The "0" for how often tells it to check at every prompt.  You
can list multiple files after the number.